<![CDATA[SOILS Permaculture Association Lebanon - Blog PDC 2015]]>Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:45:38 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Date 11 - Field Visit]]>Wed, 10 Jun 2015 19:09:20 GMThttps://www.soils-permaculture-lebanon.com/blog-pdc-2015/date-11-field-visitShared by Alexis Baghdadi

Today was the last day of my first weekend with the PDC class of 2015. Sadly, I am employed full-time this year and I can only be present in Saidoun intermittently. However, I was lucky that today included a visit to the land our Friend Fadi Kanso is looking after in Al-Babiliyye, South Lebanon.

We had met Fadi last year during the 1st PDC in Lebanon when he visited us and brought us crates of vegetables and herbs from his harvest. We became fast friends and, since then, we have had the chance to collaborate on several occasions.

The last time I visited Fadi’s land in January, it was pretty wet and muddy. After that long winter, Spring brought with it new residents to the area: thousands upon thousands of white snails clustered on range trees and any green space they can find! Fadi’s land was not spared either, but since he had created more biodiversity of plant species, he only had to deplore a few victims.

While we were there, Betty Khoury and Layal Salman set out to "de-snail" a tiny lemon tree that had been all but overrun. It certainly beats using conventional chemical countermeasures, but it seemed too labor intensive and a little futile considering the invasion around us. Besides, the pair were only peacefully relocating the snails on the other side of the road.

This has made Fadi consider applying a new permaculture principle: The problem is the solution. “I don’t have a snail problem, I’m thinking of getting some ducks to feed on them,” he said, not entirely joking.

By his own admission, Fadi is not a permacultivator in the full sense of the word, although he never uses any chemicals and only plants true seeds, practices crop rotation and introduces companion planting (such as marigolds and tomatoes, and the “3 Sisters” guild of corn, beans and squash). By his reasoning, he cannot really have a permaculture site when his land is surrounded by conventional and monoculture orchards. He also has to contend with some lingering resistance from the land’s owner.

Mostly, Fadi uses the land to experiment with new plant species (like his beloved moringa), observe them, harvest their seeds, etc. He also supplies vegetables and decorative plants to a restaurant in Beirut called Sandwich Inc. (near the Tayouneh Roundabout) – a place I highly recommend.

Apart from weathering the snail invasion, Fadi’s open-air polyculture plantations and greenhouses were safe from other diseases and pests as well – unlike his neighbors’ plots who required much higher maintenance and control.

After lunch (homemade pizza from Em Rabih and vegetables grown by Fadi), the rest of the afternoon was free so I caught a ride back to Beirut with our friend Hadi Deaibess who is also among the participants.

I look forward to coming back in a few days for the last part of the course - The design presentations.
]]><![CDATA[Day 3 - Zoning & Food Growing]]>Sun, 24 May 2015 08:05:30 GMThttps://www.soils-permaculture-lebanon.com/blog-pdc-2015/day-3-zoning-food-growingShared by Yasmina El Khoury

Waking up to Amani, Layal, and Tina coming back from a two-hour yoga session with Hassane made me thankful I chose to stay in bed. As we're getting to know each other more, our daily habits are inspiring and rubbing off on each other. It's our third day in Saydoun, and things are getting more and more interesting. 

We started our session with our daily ritual, the morning circle. We recapped yesterday's session in a small interactive exercise to get our minds and bodies out of the morning haze and ready for a new day. 

Klaudia explained to us her method of remembering and organizing information; Mind Mapping. It's basically a creative way of writing down and personalizing information logically and in a way that helps us visually remember what was said. Apparently, she's been using this method since her college days, amazing!

After that, we noticed a hint of the beginning of design methods through learning about zoning the land; where to place what. But the most interesting session that day was about Zone 00: yourself. The best thing about this course is that it places a lot of value in the self, and how important self care is as a prerequisite for "earth care" and "people care", two of the permaculture ethics. My favorite exercise was one where we had to map out or concerns, and then categorize them into "in my control" and "out of my control". Made us realize how much we drain our energy worrying about things we have no control over!

Practical sessions with Betty and Klaudia are always super beneficial. This is when we feel we are really learning. For today, we headed over to Bassam and Sylvana's house for a lesson on how to sow seeds and make our own insecticide. We used paper cups and toilet paper rolls to sow marigolds, sunflowers, chickpeas, and tomatoes. Can't wait for them to grow! Later Betty showed us simple steps to prepare a natural insectidie which we can spray to keep bugs off our plants. Who knew using garlic, onions, and chili powder mixed with water can work miracles! After every practical session, we realize how unnecessary and harmful manufactured chemicals are and how bountiful the land is in giving us the simplest solutions. If only everyone resorted to natural remedies and worked WITH the land!

Finally, as a kind of prep for our evening movie, Sylvana led us to a terraced area where the villagers had planted olive trees, onions, artichokes...and where we found a field full of fava beans! A bunch of us started picking the beans (and tasting along the way) ending up with two huge bags of them, which we then shared with the whole class during the movie. Great way to end the day. 
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